Amazing Girl
by Regency
Summary: Slightly AU. Maria is jealous when another girl wants to be Sarah Jane's protégé. Sarah Jane/Maria one-sided


Author: Regency

Title: Amazing Girl

Pairing: Sarah Jane/Maria (one-sided)

Spoilers: None in particular.

Word count: 812

Summary: Maria is jealous when another girl wants to be Sarah Jane's protégé.

AN: I guess this could count as AU since there is no Rani in the SJ 'verse. **ETA: **Made "Amelia" into Rani and it seemed to work.

Disclaimer: I don't own any characters recognizable as being from _Sarah Jane Adventures_. They are the property of their respective producers, writers, and studios, not me. No copyright infringement was intended and no money was made in the writing or distribution of this story. It was good, clean fun.

~!~

_Absolutely not_, Sarah Jane would say. That girl absolutely wasn't taking Maria's place as surely as they were speaking to one another through the Trans-Atlantic phone line. Absolutely _not_.

Maria was unconvinced.

Sarah Jane had talked endlessly about the girl the entire phone call, which wasn't very long because they were so expensive to make. That wasn't like her; she was usually more interested in hearing about Maria's new life in the States, about the kinds of friends she was making and what classes she was taking. No, this time it was all about Rani and how useful she was in an emergency, how she listened and learned easily, how wonderfully she got on with Luke and Clyde. In short, Rani was absolutely perfect and Sarah Jane loved her already.

At the end of that phone call, Maria wanted to cry. Sarah Jane did not gush about anything, but she'd gushed about this girl. She hated it.

_That's my life she's living_, she thought angrily,_ and I want it back._

~!~

"Absolutely not."

"But, dad, Sarah Jane needs me at home," Maria pleaded.

Alan Jackson sighed and sat back. "Maria, Sarah Jane always needs you, but you can't always be there. That's the reality of life. She got along fine without you before, I'm sure she can continue to do so." Not what she needed to hear.

"But, dad—"

"The answer is no, Maria. You can't just abandon your studies to run back to London because Sarah Jane calls on you. I'm sorry, that's my final answer," he finished, sounding contrite to have to answer at all.

Maria nodded, refusing to speak lest she burst into tears.

"You'll be all right, then?"

Maria nodded again.

"Homework?"

Maria sniffled and nodded a third time before bolting out of the kitchen with as much composure as she could manage. It didn't last long. She fell apart as soon as she closed her bedroom door. She threw herself on the bed and cried into her pillow. This was not going to be her kind of day.

~!~

"Can I come visit you?"

"Of course you can, Maria," Sarah Jane exclaimed. "Provided your father approves, there's always room for you here."

"Naturally," Maria responded, holding the headset in a sweating grip.

"Naturally," Sarah Jane returned, sounding suddenly much less enthused.

Maria curled up in the window seat of her bedroom and pressed her face to the glass to cool her flustered cheeks. She wanted to be alone with her thoughts and with Sarah Jane. Things only seemed to make sense when she was on the phone, which explained the astronomical fees she was working to pay now. Never mind about that, though—there was always Sarah Jane.

"Is everything all right with your father, Maria?"

"Naturally," Maria retorted, but her heart wasn't in it.

"Naturally." Neither was Sarah Jane's. "Can I help?" she asked.

Maria smiled and blinked away whatever tears might have considered falling. She didn't want to waste these minutes crying. There was always time for that at night. "You already are," she answered.

"Well, in that case, I'd best keep it up. What have you been doing with yourself lately? Tell me everything."

Maria outright laughed now. This was the Sarah Jane she knew, the one who cared about Maria and all that Maria got up to; the Sarah Jane who wasn't too preoccupied with the universec on her side of the pond. This was the Sarah Jane Maria liked. _Rani_ _who_, she thought smugly.

"I've met someone positively splendid," she confessed in a conspiratorial whisper.

"Oh?" She could hear Sarah Jane cease her moving about to sit on the couch. "I'm listening."

Her chest tightened and her tear-stained cheeks flushed again. "She loves adventures. She's yet to meet a mischief she couldn't get into. She's amazing, Sarah Jane." She felt like she was playacting, doing an impersonation of someone she could never hope to outshine.

Three words.

"An amazing girl for an amazing girl. That does sound positively splendid," Sarah Jane seemed to beam over the wire.

_Who am I?_

Maria rested her heads on her knees. "It is. She is. Oh, Sarah Jane, she reminds me of you. I'd so hoped you would approve."

There was a softness in Sarah Janes's voice when she spoke again. "Oh, dear sweet Maria, there was never a chance I wouldn't."

Three words: _I am you._

"Wonderful. That's just wonderful." Someday, Maria hoped she could tell her beloved Sarah Jane that there was no girl—not really—just the echo of one and the realization of the woman she'd become. There was just the girl who'd clung to her friend as she dangled helpless from a pier and the woman who never forgot her after she fell.

It was true, Maria thought. Sarah Jane Smith was an amazing girl.

And someday, she'd be hers.


End file.
